René Descartes

1596 – 1650 · died at about 54^[1][2]

Philosophy & Thought

Fun Facts About René Descartes

• René Descartes agreed to tutor Queen Christina of Sweden three times a week at 5 a.m. in her cold castle. They disliked each other and met only four or five times.^[1]
• Descartes was reburied in 1819 without a finger and his skull. The skull at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris may be a forgery.^[1]
• Before becoming a philosopher, Descartes joined the Dutch States Army as a mercenary in 1618, hoping to become a professional military officer.^[1]
• According to Adrien Baillet, Descartes shut himself in a room with a stove to escape the cold and had three dreams. By the time he came out, he had formulated analytic geometry.^[1]
• Descartes had a daughter, Francine, with a servant girl, and he wept when Francine died in 1640 at the age of 5.^[1]
• The Catholic Church put Descartes's works on its Index of Prohibited Books in 1663, and in 1671 Louis XIV banned lectures on his philosophy.^[1][3][4]
• René Descartes was alive at the same time as Elizabeth I — their lives overlapped for 7 years (1596–1603).^[1][2][5][6]
• René Descartes shares a birthday with Johann Sebastian Bach: both were born on March 31.^[1][2][7][8]

René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, logician, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science during Renaissance era. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.^[1]

Contemporaries

Oliver Cromwell

51 yr overlap

Diego Velázquez

51 yr overlap

Galileo Galilei

46 yr overlap

Rembrandt

44 yr overlap

Peter Paul Rubens

44 yr overlap

Johannes Kepler

34 yr overlap

Francis Bacon

30 yr overlap

Molière

28 yr overlap

Blaise Pascal

27 yr overlap

Tokugawa Ieyasu

20 yr overlap

Miguel de Cervantes

20 yr overlap

William Shakespeare

20 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About René Descartes

When was René Descartes born?

René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, and died on February 11, 1650.

How old was René Descartes at death?

René Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, and died on February 11, 1650, at age 53.

What was René Descartes known for?

René Descartes was known for: "I think, therefore I am". René Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, logician, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science during Renaissance era. Mathematics was paramount to his method of inquiry, and he connected the previously separate fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.

Who was alive at the same time as René Descartes?

René Descartes's closest contemporary was Oliver Cromwell. Their lives overlapped for 51 years.